A military convoy with Russian registration plates drives past anti-war protesters during a rally on a road in Simferopol March 8, 2014. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday the new Ukrainian government should stick to an agreement signed by the ousted president, signalling no change in Moscow's position over the Crimea crisis. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko (UKRAINE - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT MILITARY)

Dozens of military trucks transporting heavily armed soldiers rumbled over Crimea's rutted roads Saturday as Russia reinforced its armed presence on the disputed peninsula in the Black Sea.

Moscow's foreign minister ruled out any dialogue with Ukraine's new authorities, whom he dismissed as puppets of extremists.

The Russians have denied their armed forces are active in Crimea, but an Associated Press reporter trailed one military convoy Saturday afternoon from west of Feodosia to a military airfield at Gvardeiskoye north of Simferopol, over which a Russian flag flew. Some of the vehicles had Russian license plates and numbers indicating they were from the Moscow region.

Ships unload vehicles

The strategic peninsula in southern Ukraine has become the flash point in the battle for the nation, where three months of protests sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to ditch a significant treaty with the 28-nation European Union after pressure from Russia led to his downfall. Most people in Crimea identify with Russia, and Moscow's Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol, as is Ukraine's.

Vladislav Seleznyov, a Crimean-based spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces, said witnesses reported seeing amphibious military ships unloading about 200 military vehicles in eastern Crimea on Friday night after apparently having crossed the Strait of Kerch, which separates Crimea from Russian territory.

"Neither the equipment nor the paratroopers have insignia that identify them as Russian, but we have no doubt as to their allegiance," Seleznyov said.

The regional parliament in Crimea has set a referendum next Sunday on leaving Ukraine to join Russia, and senior lawmakers in Moscow said they will support the move, ignoring sanctions threats and warnings from President Obama that the vote would violate international law.

While the United States and the EU urged Russia to engage in dialogue with new Ukrainian authorities, the Kremlin has refused to do so, denouncing the change of power in Ukraine as an "unconstitutional coup."

Diplomatic contact

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow sees no sense in talking with Ukraine's new authorities because, in his view, they kowtow to radical nationalists.

At a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine's new foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsi, spoke hopefully about forming a group of various countries' foreign ministers to mediate the crisis.

Deshchytsi said he learned from mediators that Russia hasn't "categorically" refused the idea of permitting a contact group to help broker an end to the dispute.

Lavrov also spoke by telephone Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. Kerry "made clear that continued military escalation and provocation in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine, along with steps to annex Crimea to Russia, would close any available space for diplomacy, and he urged utmost restraint," the official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of annexing Crimea but that its people have the right to determine its status in a referendum.

The Crimean referendum has been denounced by Ukraine's new government.